“As a member of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, we select sustainable fish options at all times, with our own direct links to the coast for seafood and oysters, saving on a trip up to Sydney and back. We use mostly local, organic produce, and work closely with our producers to reduce and reuse delivery packaging.”

Hillside Pastured Farm chicken with black garlic, pickled elderberries, and dashi onions; Boxgum Grazing pork loin with rouge d’Anjou pear, fermented grains, and pine mushrooms; and soymilk pannacotta with geranium granita, topaz apple, and late-season raspberries.

Ben Willis doesn’t need to travel far to source the ingredients for his polished, highly seasonal four-course menu. Even his kitchen team grows vegetables for the menu – apt for a restaurant named Aubergine.

Winter is trickier, but in the warmer seasons, Willis is able to source up to eighty per cent of vegetables locally. Key ingredients travel short distances, including grass-fed beef and pastured pork from Boxgum Grazing, organic, free-range eggs from BumNuts Australia, truffles from Terra Preta in Braidwood, and much, much more. (The credits for his hero suppliers might run longer than his actual menu.)

It all makes for a lovely mix of contemporary food, classy wines, sustainable values, and unpretentious hospitality.

“This is the kind of thing that Aubergine does well – source beautiful ingredients and treat them with originality and understanding.” –Kirsten Lawson, goodfood.com.au